Millan admitted using three checks of Shariff Joseph Azzalina, whose decomposed body was found Jan. 20 in the basement of an apartment building he owned.

Millan cashed the checks eight days before Azzalina's body was found. Police said no one had seen Azzalina since Jan. 9.

Several months after his arrest, Millan implicated another man in the killing.

Millan told police that Hector Felipe Gonzalez gave him the keys to Azzalina's 1986 Plymouth and that he found a checkbook in the car.

No one has been charged in Azzalina's death, prosecutors said.

Gonzalez lived in the apartment building Azzalina owned at 343 Ridge Ave., Allentown.

Gonzalez is awaiting trial on attempted murder charges and dozens of other charges stemming from a series of beatings and burglaries in December 1988 and January 1989.

A charge of hindering apprehension of a criminal was dropped against Millan. That charge was filed by police after Millan allegedly lied and said he didn't know Gonzalez well.

When police questioned him three days after he cashed the checks, Millan said he didn't know Gonzalez.

About three months later, he told police he had been aware Azzalina had been killed and that his body was in a basement of a Ridge Avenue house. He then told police he got the keys to Azzalina's car from Gonzalez.

Police contended that withholding that information hindered the investigation of the killing.

Millan said he sometimes got cocaine from Gonzalez and jewelry, which he suspected was stolen.

Millan told police he drove the car for a few days and parked it near the 400 block of Grant Street where he had been living.

The car was recovered at Grant and Liberty streets, about one block from Millan's prior address, four days before Azzalina's body was found.